SCHIZOMYCETES. 211 



gium without net-like thickenings, now and then symmetrically per- 

 forated. 



Licea and Tubulina are genera of this order of which we have 

 species. 



Order V. Heterodermeee. Sporangia without capillitium,- colu- 

 mella, or lime ; wall of sporangium delicate, when mature at least partly 

 cracked, exposing the net-like flat thickenings of the inner side of wall ; 

 spores and thickenings of the inner wall in one and the same sporan- 

 gium usually of uniform color. 



Dictydium and CrUbraria are our common genera. 



Order VI. Columelliferse. Spores, capillitium, and columella 

 uniformly bright-colored, without lime ; capillitium of very thin-sided 

 tubes, without thickenings, combined into a thickly intricate but loose- 

 hanging net. 



Represented by the genus Reticularia. 



Order VII. Calonemeee. Walls of sporangia, spores, and capillitium 

 usually uniformly colored in the same sporangium. Color variable 

 from yellow to brownish or chestnut ; more rarely olive green or gray- 

 ish white ; capillitium usually strongly developed ; threads simple, or 

 combined into a net, either entirely free or grown to certain places of 

 the wall of the sporangium ; walls of the threads very rarely smooth, 

 usually provided externally with protruding thickenings, either spiral- 

 shaped or under the form of numerous spines, warts, or transverse 

 rings; without fixed columella; exceptionally containing lime, exclu- 

 sively on the walls of the sporangia; now and then aethalia covered 

 with a stout double cortex of colored cells. 



Arcyria and Trichia are our common genera. 



(6) Specimens of the Slime Moulds may be obtained for study by ex- 

 amining the surfaces of decayed logs, and the bark-covered ground in 

 tan-yards. They may frequently be found on decaying leaves, and 

 occasionally on the grass and mosses near decaying vegetable matter. 



II. CLASS SCHIZOMYCETES. 



277. These are minute unicellular Protophytes, which 

 reproduce mainly by transverse fission. The cells are gener- 

 ally somewhat elongated, often much so, although in one 

 family they are spherical ; they are sometimes provided with 

 cilia, by means of which they move rapidly through the 



are commonly placed in the Animal Kingdom. Zopf 's system is fol- 

 lowed by Berlese in Saccardo's " Sylloge Fungorum." vol. vii., 1888, 

 in which all the known species in the world (about 450) are described. 



